I'd be glad with them going to 2-3 cities. Dallas does have a pretty good shot, but there's some stiff competition out there. If they end up just going to one city and we end up being the #2, we get squat. If they go to 2-3 cities, this increases our chances immensely.

They plan to employ 50,000 employees, so, even a third of that is HUGE, so I'm totally fine with this.

The group had been expecting to hear by Friday, which was when they were told Amazon would have its shortlist. Partnership spokeswoman Dianne Chase said that the volume of proposals means this week will no longer be the decision point.

“We are informed that a short list announcement is now not anticipated until early 2018,” Chase said

Atlanta definitely seems to be the front runner right now based on the rumors. I think that is great news for Dallas though, as Dallas could put up tough competition to Atlanta. Nothing is decided yet.

Austin55 wrote:Atlanta definitely seems to be the front runner right now based on the rumors. I think that is great news for Dallas though, as Dallas could put up tough competition to Atlanta. Nothing is decided yet.

That's a good way of looking at it. If Amazon were eyeing something like Boston, then I would have completely lost hope at this point, but, if they are seriously considering Atlanta, then there's a good chance Dallas is #2 (or at least in their top 3).

^it's kinda funny in a way, in one of those defeating realizations that sometimes none of 'it' really matters... we put tons of effort and thinking into how schools, transportation, workforce, politico-economic packages impact or influence business decisions like this Amazon office trophy. School districts all across metro Atlanta are totally whacked out, with Atlanta Public Schools leading the pack, corruption at metro Atlanta 'city halls' may not reach the notorious level of Chicago corruption, but people seem to go to jail for graft and corruption regularly -- and the Atlanta Airport is frequently a main character in the schemes.

And then we have a complete collapse like this power outage... a thoughtful, thorough plan enacted but with a fatal flaw. A couple years ago, careless/absence of management of winter storm preparedness turned a bad two-day ice storm into a ridiculous debilitating region-wide natural disaster. And yet, Atlanta is booming! not on the same level as DFW, but it's red hot. Sometimes the terrible school districts, regular occurrence of once-in-a-lifetime crap-out just doesn't matter.

Other than the Amazon lobbyist visiting Georgia (which Amazon has already publicly stated that the visit was unrelated to HQ2), what evidence do you have that suggests Amazon has chosen Atlanta?

Excellent question. There have been a lot of silly articles and comments about Amazon HQ2, but that had to have been one of the silliest. Area we supposed to believe Amazon doesn't already have lobbyists in pretty much every state?

Mgreen15 wrote:Other than the Amazon lobbyist visiting Georgia (which Amazon has already publicly stated that the visit was unrelated to HQ2), what evidence do you have that suggests Amazon has chosen Atlanta?

Initially the link didn't have that disclaimer.

With that said, I know Amazon's HQ are 100% energized by renewable energy. Perhaps, these two things are related.

Why would Amazon send an Energy lobbyist to Georgia then if it didn't matter?

IDK what Georgia laws are regarding Energy ...but you can't say there's no reason they sent that guy to ATL. There's gotta be a point for him being there.... And obviously Amazon is going to say it's not related.

I'll say this, with Amazon sending their Lobbyist to Georgia, ATL city council expediting the Gulch Mixed use Project. The constant lists that have ATL as number 1 in the HQ2 sweepstakes. It's starting to look like we have a winner...

I know Amazon also has Wind and Solar Farms projects throughout the US.

If they send this dude there for that... Well, that just makes ATL even more a front runner in my eyes.

The new tax bill just capped the SALT State and Local Tax deduction. Georgia has a state income tax, and the deduction will be capped at $10K. So HQ2 employees in GA would pay state income tax, and at the high end lose their deduction.

Texas as we know has no such tax. So this gives Texas another advantage over most states including GA.

They have not stated a date for the announcement. Lord knows everyone in every business newspaper from east to west has tried to get something out of Amazon. We will just have to wait until they decide to drop that economic bomb.

I really don't see that as being related. One of the news articles mentioned that they actually had been scouting for that amount of space prior to the HQ2 bonanza. Amazon announced a logistics hub in Atlanta around the time of the HQ2 press stuff and everyone thought it meant it was going to them (I'd argue, there does seem to be a lot of smoke with Atlanta at this point), but the point is I don't think you can draw anything from these types of leases at this point.

Not sure if this is a dumb question or not, but does Amazon’s list capture the metro areas listed or is this a list of the proper cities? (eg. would it say North Texas if they were considering Irving, Frisco etc.)

Dallas12 wrote:Not sure if this is a dumb question or not, but does Amazon’s list capture the metro areas listed or is this a list of the proper cities? (eg. would it say North Texas if they were considering Irving, Frisco etc.)

My assumption would be a list saying Dallas would include almost the entire metroplex. I doubt Fort Worth is within the range of their meaning but I would assume this does not mean we are only talking about Dallas proper.

Dallas12 wrote:Not sure if this is a dumb question or not, but does Amazon’s list capture the metro areas listed or is this a list of the proper cities? (eg. would it say North Texas if they were considering Irving, Frisco etc.)

Considering that they listed Northern VA and Montgomery Co, MD separately from DC, this pretty clearly indicates they’re only considering Dallas and not its suburbs.

With Amazon subsidiary Whole Foods firmly established in Austin, that town gets automatic bye to the second round.

I wont be surprised to see most of the West Coast TechnoGiants open significant operations & decision making offices in North Texas. Nexus is a leftover corporate buzz word from the turn of the century, that has growing application to describe the North Texas employment center. Maybe Dallas is where someone figures out how to do data centers better....

Dallas12 wrote:Not sure if this is a dumb question or not, but does Amazon’s list capture the metro areas listed or is this a list of the proper cities? (eg. would it say North Texas if they were considering Irving, Frisco etc.)

Considering that they listed Northern VA and Montgomery Co, MD separately from DC, this pretty clearly indicates they’re only considering Dallas and not its suburbs.

The press release does mention 'metro areas' so I assume its more than just Dallas proper. But, I suspect it depends on how the areas submitted their proposals. I think Dallas went with the regional proposal instead of breaking them out by area...

Tivo_Kenevil wrote:This shortlist... Is really not surprising. They're the front runners that we all knew from the start .. .wake me up when this list is narrowed.. yawn.

Yeah, I'm extremely disappointed with this 'short' list. It's basically a list of all the obvious choices, plus about ten more.

Dallas12 wrote:Not sure if this is a dumb question or not, but does Amazon’s list capture the metro areas listed or is this a list of the proper cities? (eg. would it say North Texas if they were considering Irving, Frisco etc.)

That's what I was wondering too.

Sidenote, but, based on the few conversations I have had about HQ2, some people in the northern suburbs seem surprisingly optimistic about landing HQ2. Just this morning on the radio, the DJ's were predicting Frisco as a likely candidate and then another DJ chimed in saying she lived in McKinney and hoped they would get it. A few months ago, the topic of HQ2 came up amongst my father's coworkers (who all work for companies in Plano) and one of them mentioned Frisco as being a likely candidate. I almost laughed because I thought they were joking, but then others chimed in agreeing with him.

I know this is all anecdotal and only based on a handful of people, but it was all quite surprising to me. I guess with Plano getting all these big wins the past few years, people in Frisco/McKinney/Allen/etc probably feel like it's only a matter of time before they produce the next Legacy West.

Dallas12 wrote:Not sure if this is a dumb question or not, but does Amazon’s list capture the metro areas listed or is this a list of the proper cities? (eg. would it say North Texas if they were considering Irving, Frisco etc.)

Considering that they listed Northern VA and Montgomery Co, MD separately from DC, this pretty clearly indicates they’re only considering Dallas and not its suburbs.

Agreed. Beyond that, Amazon specifically stated their intent was to move into an urban area, which also means Dallas and not any suburb.

Perhaps Apple or Google would gravitate towards a Plano/Frisco type campus, but I don't see Amazon doing that based on their criteria. But I still see places like Midtown and Las Colinas fitting into their vision.

Tivo_Kenevil wrote:This shortlist... Is really not surprising. They're the front runners that we all knew from the start .. .wake me up when this list is narrowed.. yawn.

I still don't get Austin. there's not even an international airport there.

Right. I can’t believe Austin was picked over Houston. I know Houston just had the hurricane but I honestly can’t understand why they didn’t make the short list.

Houston has come a long way in diversifying their economy, but Houston is still dominated by energy. As far as the Tech industry, Dallas and Austin are in another league compared to Houston.

My sister works for Amazon and said that in the survey they sent out to their employees about where they want HQ2 to land, Austin was far and away the favorite. Aside from the strong tech sector and its general momentum, the fact that Austin is Amazon's employees' strong preference makes it getting the nod over Houston not surprising at all.

Didnt Amazon specifically say that they want an urban downtown setting and not a suburb location? Along with the requirements for mass transit, access to highways and the airports?

How are morons still thinking that the suburbs have a chance other than typical suburbanites bashing the core while having not been there aside from a Stars or Mavericks game in about a decade? Other than the ill informed people who dont read and now hear relocation and by relex thin Plano or Frisco.

And by the same logic, how has Amazon even kept Austin in this at all, they meet none of the requirements other than being able to have a good educational base and an urban setting if they can find room left in downtown Austin, it meets none of the requirements.

whi5125 wrote:And by the same logic, how has Amazon even kept Austin in this at all, they meet none of the requirements other than being able to have a good educational base and an urban setting if they can find room left in downtown Austin, it meets none of the requirements.

I agree, but, even with that in mind, if I had to pick twenty cities Amazon might go to, Austin would be on my list as well. Not because I think Austin is a good fit, but because it would be hard to come up with twenty other cities.

This list is all a farce anyway. There is no way Amazon is picking between all twenty of these cities. Chances are, they picked their next destination a year or so ago, and this is just to fuel a bidding war. For instance, if, hypothetically, Amazon wanted to move to DFW, well then it would be a good idea to put Austin on the list as well just to create some competition between the cities.

whi5125 wrote:And by the same logic, how has Amazon even kept Austin in this at all, they meet none of the requirements other than being able to have a good educational base and an urban setting if they can find room left in downtown Austin, it meets none of the requirements.

Two things incentives and company culture. While I still think Austin is not on a final top 5 list it does match up with the company culture. Also, what were the incentives Austin may have offered? Money talks and discounts/tax breaks can make a lot of people look past some issues. I agree though I think the Austin choice is a wishful thinking proposal. If Austin had a few more checkboxes on Amazon's list then I think they would be a better competitor and sail over Dallas. I think employees would choose Austin I think execs would choose Dallas if it was between those two choices. While execs take employee input they don't tend to build their final decision on it. Austin is the feel-good option that is grounded in nothing but its popularity as a hip place to be. The good thing is if you do choose Dallas Austin is a short distance away and in many peoples mind they can more easily hire employees from both markets. It will come down to how hard does the selection committee follow their own rules and the incentives offered by the city itself cause state incentives will be the same across the state.

Tivo_Kenevil wrote:This shortlist... Is really not surprising. They're the front runners that we all knew from the start .. .wake me up when this list is narrowed.. yawn.

I still don't get Austin. there's not even an international airport there.

Right. I can’t believe Austin was picked over Houston. I know Houston just had the hurricane but I honestly can’t understand why they didn’t make the short list.

Houston has come a long way in diversifying their economy, but Houston is still dominated by energy. As far as the Tech industry, Dallas and Austin are in another league compared to Houston.

Very true...but Austin lacks a major airport hub. That was one of the requirements from Amazon. I guess, (like someone stated) it is because of Whole Foods.

Edit: I know we don’t have the best public transportation, but wouldn’t Austin’s transportation infrastructure be way under capacity to handle such a large company? I know there’s only one interstate and a commuter rail line. I believe Austin is worse off in that department (not by much).